HISD cutting school cafeteria jobs and wages

HISD serving up far-ranging cafeteria cutbacksHours and jobs will be lost in effort to mend budget

ERICKA MELLON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 6:30 am, Sunday, March 7, 2010

More than 425 cafeteria workers in the Houston school district will have their wages slashed this month, dozens of other positions will be cut and students likely will pay more for lunch next year to cover a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.

The Houston Independent School District also is expected to take the rare step this year of spending $10.5 million from savings — about 3 percent of the account — to meet cafeteria expenses.

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Some of the shortfall can be attributed to revenue lost during Hurricane Ike, when cafeteria meals weren't sold but workers were paid. In a separate incident, the district had to toss $1.5 million worth of food because of an ammonia leak.

Still, Grier said, payroll expenses should have been cut sooner, and the district should not have been serving what he dubbed “platinum” meals with pricey fresh fruit daily.

Grier said he learned about most of the budget woes from Garrett about two weeks ago. He shared the news publicly last week following the resignation of HISD chief business officer Richard Lindsay, who oversaw food service, construction, maintenance, transportation and police.

Officials from Aramark, the private company HISD pays to run food services, told district staff at an October meeting that school cafeteria workers' hours should be trimmed, but the cuts never happened, Grier said.

HISD began cooking its food at a new $35 million centralized facility last year — a move that should have meant reduced hours for school-based employees who only need to warm and serve meals, Grier said.

Later this month, 425 of about 1,680 cafeteria workers will have their hours slashed — some by 30 minutes and others by three hours a day — and another 57 workers will see their positions cut, Garrett said. For a worker who sees a three-hour cut, the weekly paycheck will be cut roughly in half to $150.

Grier said he expects to ask the school board to raise lunch prices next school year from $1.75 to “probably no more than $2.” Most students don't pay the full amount because they qualify for free- or reduced-priced meals under the federal school lunch program.

High schools also might have to stop selling food from outside vendors, including name-brand pizza and chicken, because it competes with the cafeteria meals that the district receives partial reimbursement for serving to low-income students.

The outside items are typically sold as part of fundraisers for booster clubs and other groups.

Compounding the district's budget problems, HISD recently was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for improperly planning to reimburse its general fund over four or five years for $21.2 million spent on equipment for the new central food facility, Garrett said.